LAKE ELSINORE: City hires firm to design quake protections

Lake Elsinore officials have hired a Burbank firm to come up
with designs for reinforcing the Cultural Center and City Hall so
they will withstand earthquakes.

The City Council voted 4-0 without discussion Tuesday to hire
Risha Engineering Design Services to plan seismic retrofit systems
for the two buildings.

Both are unreinforced masonry buildings constructed before such
systems were available. The Cultural Center, the city's chief
public meeting hall, was erected as a church in 1923 and much of
today's City Hall was built in 1934.

The city will pay Risha $114,255 for the work out of $1.1
million earmarked for the project, with most of the money coming
from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Risha has done retrofit work on numerous projects, including the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego, the Cinespace
entertainment complex in Hollywood and the U.S. Mint Building in
Carson City, Nev.

The firm's task in Lake Elsinore is to determine which
structural techniques best suit the buildings and design those
supports.